Misery Through Foggy Glass
by MoonLiteCorp
Summary: Vlad's dream come true, where Maddie and Danny are Vlad's Wife and Son. Vlad is a bad father figure. Is it an A/U, a ghost effect or some experiment of Vlad's? Danny wouldn't know he has no memory of things being different.


Story description: Vlad's dream come true, where Maddie and Danny are Vlad's Wife and Son. Vlad is a bad father figure. Is it an A/U, a ghost effect or some experiment of Vlad's? Danny wouldn't know he has no memory of things being different.

Within the wall of the Mayor's mansion, Danny stood awkwardly, pretending to fiddle with small dusty books on a shelf. All the while, his brooding father grumbled, searching through stacks of papers for the notes to his speech. The citizens were giving him a hard time about the increased taxes from the Master's Blasters. Hopefully, he could please everyone by reminding them how much the Blasters do for the community. Eyes drifting away from scattered pages, he noticed irritably how far the young boy was from him, in his own little world.

"Straighten your tie, Daniel. I won't have you messing this up for me." Vlad nagged over his paperwork.

"Yes, father." The boy fumbled with his tie, with eyes to the floor and slumped shoulders. He hated it when father was frantic about work. Danny always seemed to receive the brunt of his father's aggressions.

A disapproving sigh came from Vlad as he came up to Danny and back handed across his cheek with such force his feet fumbled.

"Boys, are you ready?" Maddie said cheerfully as she entered the room, her fingers fixing the watch on her wrist.

Vlad's whole body language changed as his calm, smooth voice broke, "Yes, dearest just helping Daniel with his tie." He then gently adjust Danny's tie to his liking before walking out. "Silly boy doesn't know how to look presentable."

"Danny is everything ok?" Maddie said as she took note of his glassy eyes.

"I'm fine, mom." He said as he followed Vlad's path. He forced himself to shove down his thoughts and emotion, knowing that in the public image he better be seen smiling in every picture taken.

…..

In school no one bullied him knowing he was son of the mayor but also no one felt the need to befriend him either. Unfortunately, being friends or even acquaintances put you directly in the spotlight. In times it became lonely. It felt as if something was missing from him. An odd emptiness that he couldn't explain. His life was bland; uneventful and joyless. Nothing "different" happened through his day. Being the mayor's son high school grades were expected to be perfect. And there were never any teachers to give him problems. The world seemed to gravitate away from Danny. In his locker a picture hung of him standing alone. He wanted to toss it feeling depressed every time he glanced at it but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to do it.

Danny would find himself glaring at one of the students Dash, slight anxiety ghosting over his skin every time their eyes met but never a reason given. The relationship between his girlfriend Paulina and him was torn. She didn't bring him much joy as he thought she would have. To him, it seems he wanted her for years, and yet it wasn't gratifying to have her. He couldn't explain it, but being together didn't make him happy.

And whenever a ghost strikes he would slip into his phantom form and handle the situation until the Master's Blasters showed up. They've always handle it better than he ever could. He has a habit of messing things up and making situations worse.

…..

Later in the day, the family sat around the dinner table as Danny quietly, listening to his parents discussing ghost invasions. Mom would occasionally change the subject to ask Danny about school to which she was given short answers to as he played with his food rather than eating. Danny tried to focus on other thoughts instead of mom talking about how she wished she dissect a ghost to study, the light rain against the window plane, the sudden draft from the heat kicking up, anything other than this conversation.

He broke away from his thoughts several minutes later by his mother laying a hand on his shoulder, "Are you feeling ok, sweetie?"

"Yes, I'm just tired."

"Ok, sleep tight." She kissed the top of his head before she got up to leave.

A cold silence filled the room which now only held him and father.

"Daniel, I need your help in the lab."

"I…have homework." He stuttered as he tried to make an excuse which would get him out of helping him.

"This won't take very long. I'm sure you could make time in your studies to help your old man out."

Danny nodded in agreement as he broke eye contract and stared at his feet as he followed him to his private lab. Both his parents had separate labs so they could work on different projects.

The squeak of the large metal door shut behind Danny as he entered the lab made his skin crawl.

"This way, my boy." Vlad commented as he jestured to one of his machines which was connected to a test tube.

A shiver froze Danny in his tracks for a second before he pushed it aside and willing walked into the test tube while Vlad strapped him in.

"If my calculations are correct, I should just need a sample of your DNA while transforming to figure out exactly what happen in your accident which made you phantom."

Danny wasn't listening as he counted the dots on the ceiling just to remove himself from his situation.

After Vlad found Danny's straps and the computer acceptable he commend, "Do it."

There was barely a moment's pause before Danny quickly changes his form into his ghost form. There were a few peaceful moments of Vlad mumbling to his self as he looked over data on screens and the beeping of the computers before lighting ran through Danny. He screamed into the sound proof room as his ghost form glows. This continued until the second he was released he rushed to a trash can to throw up.

It was within these moments that Danny would see the soft side of father without his mother's presence. He would thank him for his help and say sorry for making him hurt, hug him and rub his back. A bitter thought would always cross his mind that father was just worried that he might tell his mother about these experiments but then he would have to tell her his secret of being half ghost and she hated ghosts. She had no idea that both of them were half ghost.

As he made his way into his bed he rubbed his bruised wrists. Like many nights before he choose to float above his bed in his phantom form. Tonight his dreams took to a common theme as he dreamt of a black haired girl with no face. Who was she and why did he dream of her?


End file.
